FCC releases 1st round of CARES funds for coronavirus telehealth response

Six providers, including those in hard-hit areas like New York and New Orleans, received more than $3.2 million from the $200 million fund set aside for telehealth by the CARES stimulus package Congress passed last month.

By Rebecca Pifer • April 17, 2020

Public health agencies, commercial labs warn patchy IT infrastructure hobbling COVID-19 response

"Public health is spending time digitizing the information, rather than being able to immediately analyze and act upon it," Janet Hamilton, executive director of the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists, said.

By Rebecca Pifer • April 17, 2020

Explore the Trendline➔

Artificial intelligence

Amid mounting interest and investment in the space, it's clear AI’s applications in healthcare will only continue to grow.

By Healthcare Dive staff

CDC to launch clinical reporting app for COVID-19 in May

A patchwork of requirements creates confusion and leads to COVID-19 cases being "significantly underreported," a CDC official said Wednesday at a virtual meeting of health IT congressional advisory group HITAC.

By Rebecca Pifer • April 16, 2020

Teladoc, Livongo execs highlight bright spots for health IT amid pandemic

Behavioral health services are one of the fastest growing segments within virtual care, and those tailwinds are unlikely to abate post pandemic, management teams told SVB Leerink analysts.

By Hailey Mensik • April 16, 2020

Coronavirus drives surge in Teladoc virtual medical visits

The telehealth vendor expects revenue for the first quarter to be up about 40% year over year as the pandemic drives virtual care adoption. CEO Jason Gorevic told investors, "The role of virtual care has changed forever."

By Rebecca Pifer • April 15, 2020

Doctors say COVID-19 has slashed patient volumes, made finances shaky

A new survey of doctors by Piper Sandler concludes physician practices have been deeply impacted by the coronavirus, with patient encounters down by nearly two-thirds.

By Ron Shinkman • April 13, 2020

Harvard, INSEAD authors pitch systemic regulatory approach to AI/ML devices

A new paper in Nature's digital medicine journal lays out that real-world performance of specific Software as a Medical Device products using artificial intelligence and machine learning will vary considerably by hospital.

By Nick Paul Taylor • April 9, 2020

Gottlieb, other ex-HHS officials pitch national COVID-19 surveillance plan

The proposal comes as the White House is reportedly trying to patch together a real-time system to track hospital response and equipment use amid the pandemic.

By Rebecca Pifer • April 8, 2020

Coronavirus chaos ripe for hackers to exploit medical device vulnerabilities

Interpol warned that cybercriminals are using ransomware to target healthcare organizations already overwhelmed by COVID-19, and noted a significant increase in detected health system attacks since the start of the pandemic.

By Greg Slabodkin • April 8, 2020

ONC benchmarks $2.5M for projects promoting interoperability

The injection of new funds comes after weeks of urging from the health IT and epidemiology spaces that the Trump administration better monitor the spread of COVID-19 in the U.S.

By Rebecca Pifer • April 8, 2020

HHS, CVS, Walgreens get behind Abbott's coronavirus test

HHS has ordered 1,200 of Abbott's portable testing instruments and more than 30,000 of the tests, which the company says can return results in minutes. Big retail pharmacy chains are also adopting it as they expand drive-thru testing.

By Maria Rachal • April 8, 2020

Digital health rakes in record $3.1B in Q1, but COVID-19 slump could loom

"Though some of the economic blow will be tempered by demand for connected healthcare, we do not anticipate investment activity to keep pace with Q1 levels in the coming months," according to the new Rock Health report.

By Rebecca Pifer • April 7, 2020

Helping hospitals and care teams better manage the COVID-19 pandemic

Learn how to easily triage, outreach to and engage COVID-19 patients for care coordination.

By Heather Lavoie, Geneia President & CEO • April 7, 2020

VA pauses Cerner EHR implementation — again — amid COVID-19

It's the second delay this year of the multi-billion dollar project, and the latest in a stop-and-go effort to overhaul the Department of Veterans Affairs' electronic records system.

By Rebecca Pifer • April 6, 2020

Commercial labs push for piece of $100B coronavirus relief

The clinical labs trade group, representing LabCorp and Quest, wants HHS to allocate CARES Act money for expenses or lost revenue related to COVID-19. But there's strong competition from healthcare providers also hurting financially.

By Greg Slabodkin • April 6, 2020

BD rolls out test to detect coronavirus antibodies

Some experts point to serology tests, which may help identify people who have immunity, as a key tool in U.S. management of COVID-19 going forward. The BD test has already seen significant use in China.

By Susan Kelly • April 2, 2020

Dorm rooms as hospitals, ER telehealth: CMS creates 'unprecedented' flexibility as COVID-19 rages on

Hospital groups on Tuesday applauded the actions from CMS, with the American Hospital Association calling the ability to care for patients outside of hospitals' four walls a "critical lifeline."

By Shannon Muchmore • Updated April 1, 2020

Telehealth, retail clinic use increasing in pivot toward lower-priced medical delivery sites

Telehealth use grew 12% and retail clinic use grew 10% from 2017 to 2018, according to a new report from nonprofit FAIR Health.

By Rebecca Pifer • March 31, 2020

Trump administration expedites Medicare payments to providers amid coronavirus

CMS advances Medicare payments in emergency situations like natural disasters or to address cash flow issues when there's a disruption in claims submission or processing, based on historical payments to a Medicare provider.

By Rebecca Pifer • March 30, 2020

Once 'fringe idea,' doctors warming to patients reading encounter notes, study suggests

Three-quarters of the more than 1,600 physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants and therapists surveyed for a JAMA Network Open study thought it was a good method.

By Ron Shinkman • March 29, 2020

'What about us?': Frontline primary care practices fear for survival amid coronavirus

Independent practices have resisted selling to hospitals amid years of provider consolidation, reimbursement cuts and more, leaving them with razor-thin margins. Now, they worry COVID-19 could send them off the financial cliff.

By Rebecca Pifer • March 26, 2020

FDA still trying to fine-tune Pre-Cert as pilot enters 2020

The Pre-Cert​ pilot, which includes Apple, J&J and Fitbit, is moving forward with the agency "working through the nine companies, trying to figure out how they actually do business," FDA's Bakul Patel said.

By Greg Slabodkin • March 26, 2020

UnitedHealth says self-swabbing study spurred FDA coronavirus policy change

The agency now allows onsite self-collection of samples, after a nearly 500-patient study found self-administered tests about as accurate as those carried out by clinicians.

By Nick Paul Taylor • March 26, 2020

As Congress gains ground on stimulus, healthcare workers ask people to stay home

President Donald Trump, however, said he wanted the nation to be "opened up" by Easter, despite strong advice from public health experts that the U.S. continue social distancing efforts.

By Shannon Muchmore • March 25, 2020

Telehealth vendors scramble to hire doctors as patient volume soars amid COVID-19

"We've gotten a lot of applications, more in the past two days since we put out this temporary position than we could have imagined," 98point6 CEO Robbie Cape told Healthcare Dive. "That being said, we need 10 times more."

By Rebecca Pifer • March 20, 2020